Area code 917 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan for the five boroughs of New York City: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. It is an overlay code to all numbering plan areas (NPAs) in the city, and was intended to serve cellular, pager, and voicemail applications in the city, a restriction that was subsequently ruled impermissible by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) while grandfathering that use in New York City. Area code 917 is also assigned to landlines predominantly in Manhattan, to relieve the shortage of numbers there.